Harvest Supper in the hall

Saturday evening was the village Harvest Supper. I helped by dressing up the hall with harvesty drapes, and a whole gang of people laid tables, did flower arrangements and made huge amounts of fabulous food.

Tables laden with food

Can you see my leafy cloth on the right?

Harvest Loaf

And then the puddings came out...I had to snap these shots fast before they disappeared!

And then there was entertainment.
In good village style in the form of some children playing fantastic violin music, poem readings, and some singing. Here are some barmy 'Ladies!' who 'performed'....
..........I think they borrowed the skirts?!..........I know they borrowed the guitars...

Where did they get those hairdo's?

and some not so barmy people who sang some harvesty songs..

me second from right,
(whoops that shirt doesn't go with that skirt)

At the end of the evening loads of people washed up, cleared away tables, chairs and decorations, and in no time at all it was the end of the evening.
What a lovely evening.

Dartmoor Arts and Folk Festivals

Weeks ago (3 in fact) we had Liz and Antony staying, from Glasgow and Liverpool respectively. They were taking part in 'Dartmoor Arts Week' which is a whole week of art classes including printing, storytelling, photography and others and is all centered around a village just down the road from us. Antony and Liz were doing the drawing class, which was a different tutor each day and involved doing challenging stuff like drawing shadows, drawing with thread and mimicking each others drawing styles. I've been considering treating myself to the course one year, but it sounds too much for me, especially when there's a talk or event on every evening as well. I went to the storytelling and song evening on  the Wednesday which was absolutely wonderful.

http://www.dartmoorarts.com/

They were both very lovely to have around for the week.

Vince, Me, Antony and John, our lodger.



Antony not only bought us a bunch of flowers when he left, he also let me keep this wonderful picture that he did.



Antony's pin and thread picture of a barn

We've also been doing festivals again..
Folk festivals to be specific, lots of music, singing, dancing, drinking....and strange costumes!

First a day out at Sidmouth Folk Festival on 4th August..

Buskers in Sidmouth doing really great jazzy stuff



Morris dancers everywhere



Vince having a beer and a chat with a statue!
image courtesy of our friend David
www.yardoverland.co.uk

Then a long weekend (6th & 7th) stewarding at the Dartmoor Folk Festival , which is only half an hours drive from us.

'Mariners Away' our local sea shanty group

South Zeal high street with bunting galore

a visit from Padstow Hobby Horse (or 'obby 'oss)




 

Vince on stewarding duty,
cold enough to have to wear my new hat!



and finally we came home
and camped in our field for a few days and the sun shone
'heaven'

And now I think I'm almost up to date with holiday stuff, just a bit of 'ART' to deal with next....eeek

Getting back into singing



Our dusty guitars



Up until about 6 months ago Vince and I used to go to folk clubs occasionally and sing a song or two. We'd usually have one or two new songs in the pipeline at any one time and when we felt they were good enough we'd give them a public airing. But neither of us has sung or played much for months. Yesterday, while making some books I was listening to an Eric Bogle CD, a songwriter who's work I love, and I felt the stirrings of wanting to sing again.

We have been doing some singing. We belong to a group of friends who meet most Fridays at each others houses and drink tea and wine and eat cake and sing songs (in that order). We sing mostly just for the pleasure of it and when we started, several years ago, I think it's fair to say that we were all convinced we were terrible singers and none of us would have wanted to stand up and sing in public any more than we would have wanted to jump off a cliff!
Over the years many of us have gradually gained in confidence. As a group we've sung at small village events, at a wedding (of two of the members), and some of us have sung a few solos and duets at folk clubs. On Friday evenings we mostly sing songs together and some of us do solos. 

Ever keen to try new things I did this recording of the group singing. Actually it's a video as I don't know how to record stuff to put onto a computer yet. The camera is just pointing at the wood burner so no one gets embarrassed. It was the first song we sang in the evening so we take a verse or two to get warmed up. I've just put a link here rather than embed the video so that it doesn't make the whole blog take ages to download.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6369-Dlf-k